CREDIT: WHATARETHEYWAITINGFOR.COM
There are many scientists and experts suggesting we change our ways and that we make that change very quickly before the damage inflicted on Earth destroys our habitat.

Are climate change deniers really almost extinct? Maybe so. In an article dated last August and posted on his website, David Suzuki writes that only two per cent of Canadians deny the existence of climate change. In the United States the percentage is higher, at 15.

Let's see how my grade seven arithmetic lesson on percentages serves me here. Subtracting two from 100 yields 98. And 15 from 100 yields 85. This means that 98 per cent of Canadians and 85 per cent of Americans believe that climate change is real.

No doubt someone could make the case that for one reason or another, the results of the survey are a bit skewed. But still, it's safe to say that an overwhelming number of scientists and non-scientists in both the U.S. and Canada accept that the planet's climate is heating up.

This of course would be a non-issue if the climate were changing slowly, giving animals, plants and people some kind of geological ageworth of years to adapt. But the problem is that it is happening quickly. And that would be merely interesting, and not a matter of concern, except for one other thing: it appears that human industrial activity is mainly responsible for raising the temperature of the air around the globe. We are pumping so much CO2 into the air that an over-abundance of the sun's heat is being trapped. Thus the air temperature around the planet is rising.

If all that is true, then we should try to limit CO2 output wherever we can on this fair globe. This means limiting or stopping our use of fossil fuels as soon as possible, developing alternative non-polluting energy sources, especially solar and wind, and reducing our consumption of goods and services that result in CO2 emissions — which, unfortunately, includes just about every good and service you can imagine except for growing your own peas or holding a yoga class in an unheated and non-air conditioned facility with people who can walk to it. Well, not exactly, but you get my point. Some serious re-evaluation about the goods and services we demand needs to take place.

Sadly, as some commentators have noted, concern about climate change has disappeared from the national conversations both here in Canada and in what lies on the other side of our southern border.

In Canada, the biggest issue we have at the moment is how to become even richer than we are by selling the oil we are squeegeeing out of the dirt north of Edmonton. And in the U.S. the main issue is who's going to win the election — which you may find out at about the time you read this. Stephen Harper is not flying the environmentalist flag. And Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are avoiding the topic of climate change like the proverbial plague.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Sandy has walloped vast stretches of the eastern coast. Dozens of people have died. Subway tunnels are flooded. Sea levels are rising. Giant slabs of ice are sheering off Arctic glaciers. Droughts are increasing in severity. Forest fires are increasing in number. Deserts are expanding. People are dying for lack of rain.

The increase in world temperature is great for the air conditioning and sunscreen industries. But for the rest of us, it's murder. In the article I just mentioned, Suzuki writes that according to NASA, the 20 warmest years on record have occurred since 1981; the 10 warmest, in the past 12 years.

Suzuki is not optimistic about the future. He says that global warming is now unstoppable. Even if our entire economy were to collapse, resulting in the immediate shut down of all CO2-producing machines, at best we will only be able from this point on to lessen the damage and work around the consequences.

We need an end to indifference towards climate change. We need to recapture (or just plain capture) our role as Stewards of this "Blue Planet," God's good earth — and of the atmospheric canopy that makes our home liveable.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.